Selectable Toolbar Icons in RubyCocoa

So you'd like to have some nifty selectable toolbar items to make your preferences window really polished? Or maybe you'd like to use the toolbar as a tab-set like Coda does. No problem, here's how to do it.

Note: I'm using Leopard & Interface Builder 3. You can create selectable toolbars in Tiger, but the process is different and not within the scope of this article.

To start, in the window controller, add an ib_action:

ib_action :selectPrefPaneldo|sender|# We'll do stuff here later...
end

Then in Interface Builder, create the toolbar and the toolbar items. For each toolbar item:

• Turn off the 'autovalidates' option
• Set the action to target the selectPrefPanel: action on your window controller (probably the File's Owner)

Before you save the Nib, be sure and set the toolbar's delegate to the window controller.

Now back in the window controller code, implement a toolbarSelectableItemIdentifiers method in your controller:

deftoolbarSelectableItemIdentifiers(toolbar)@toolbaridents||=begin
    window.toolbar.toolbaritems.collect {|i| i.itemIdentifier }endend

Lastly, when the window loads, select the first toolbar item:

defawakeFromNib
  window.toolbar.selectedItemIdentifier = window.toolbar.toolbarItems[0].itemIdentifier
end

Viola! Now you have selectable toolbar items.

Here's the full source for the window controller.

It's worth mentioning that this isn't specific to RubyCocoa. You can do the same thing in Objective-C, Python, or Nu (example).

Next, I'll show you how to create the views that will go within your preferences window, and how to animate them to really finish it off.

Update: Find the next article here.

Nuapp

Nuapp is a simple script (written in Nu, of course) that generates a skeleton Nu application. Check it out here: http://pastie.textmate.org/138976

You'll probably want to customize it. For instance, I doubt you'll want to use my "Requisite Beta Disclaimer". :-)

Snippet: Compiling XIBs into NIBs in your Nukefile

Here's a function I use in my Nukefile to compile XIBs into NIBs:

(functioncompile-xibs-from-to (xibs to_path)
(if (and (!= target "clobber") (!= target "clean"))
(then
(SH "mkdir -p #{to_path}")
((filelist xibs) each:(do (xib)
(set nib (xib stringByReplacingPathExtensionWith:"nib"))
(SH "ibtool #{xib} --compile #{to_path}/#{( nib fileName )}")))
(filelist "^#{to_path}/[^/]*.nib$"))
(elsenil)))  (set @nib_files (compile-xibs-from-to "^resources/views/[^/]*.xib$""build/nibs"))

It uses ibtool to compile the .xib into a .nib:

ibtool source.xib --compile target.nib

AJAX Is X-TREME!

Author’s Note: I actually wrote this back in 2006, but it kind of fell through the cracks. So I present it now, for your amusement/pleasure/whatever…

The term “Web 2.0” has become synonymous with AJAX. With the hype and buzz that’s surrounded “Web 2.0”, people seem to invent reasons for using it. Even when it makes no sense. Sometimes especially when it makes no sense. Just because it’s “cool!”

Oh yes, AJAX is cool. It can really enhance the user experience of your application. And yes, you can do some interesting single page applications that don’t require a server. But hopefully you’re not quite as gung-ho about it as Charlie here (from the comic above). Rails makes it easy to use AJAX. Really easy. Too easy? Perhaps. And occasionally even I’ve been sucked into the trap of throwing out a quick, AJAXified, solution rather than taking the time to build it right, to build it compatible with the “Web 1.0” (or non-JavaScript enabled) folks. But I shouldn’t have. And neither should you.

That, Charlie, is a good question. In my next post I’ll talk a bit about Comatose, and how I went about ensuring that it’s backward compatible with non-JavaScript enabled browsers.

Author’s Other Note: I will post the second part to this soon… Probably next week. Cheers.

R.I.P. Mr. Wieringo